GWADAR: National Party president Dr Abdul Malik Baloch on Sunday demanded an immediate ban on all foreign fishing trawlers at Makran coast.

While terming the Chinese and inter-provincial trawlers hunting at Balochistan coast ‘illegal’, the NP chief said they were depriving the local population of their livelihoods besides depleting marine resources.

The National Party had been staging protest demonstrations in every tehsil of Gwadar district for the past several days against the hunting by foreign trawlers, Dr Malik said, adding that the government had paid little attention to the grievances of the local people.

He said ‘genocide of marine life’ could not be accepted.

While expressing serious concern over allowing foreign and other province’s trawlers for fishing at Makran coast, the NP chief said: “All illegal hunting permits should be revoked immediately and foreign and inter-provincial trawlers should be banned for fishing at Balochistan coast.”

Talking about the provincial government, he said the Balochistan coastal belt seemed to have become a hub of extortion mafia due to poaching. Maritime and fisheries department had become blind and deaf as they were unable to hear the masses voice, he said, adding that it seemed they were unaware of the issue of depriving locals of their livelihoods.

Dr Malik said people at every forum, including the Senate of Pakistan, were protesting against the anti-people and anti-Balochistan moves. He said the positive effects of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor were nowhere to be seen in Balochistan, but the adverse effects of government’s policies on the marine life and people’s livelihood were visible to everyone.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2021